To Fix A Shattered Heart
by BethyBoo97
Summary: An alternate ending for tonight's episode (10/01/15), it is completely Zax based. After treating the old man and realising the striking similarities between their lives she decides that maybe it's time to tell Max how she feels, only she finds him with another nurse in his 'office' but is it what it seems?


**As soon as Casualty ended tonight I decided that it needed fixing and I had a lot of reviews through the week from spoilers asking me to fix it so here we are. Enjoy x**

She sat on the bench outside of the hospital thinking, she sat thinking of the old man that she'd been treating, his actions and words rang through her ears, making everything else go away for a bit and guilt bubble away in her tummy. The resemblance between their life situations was almost too close and that scared her, the last thing she wanted was to be in her late 70's and still not settled down and sleeping around. The memories of the happy times with Max came pouring into her memory and without consciously realising what she was doing she found herself on her way to Max's cupboard. Immediately she was taken back to the last time she'd done this, back in a time where everything had been alright between the unlikely couple, she peered around the corridor before letting herself into the 'office' that belonged to her former porter lover.

Inside the cupboard sat Max on the table that Zoe had fond memories of, and another nurse sat on the chair. She stepped back a little, unsure of what to make at the situation she had now found herself in.

"Oh, erm. I'm sorry." Zoe spoke, trying to keep the fact that her heart was internally shattering to herself.

"Zo, it's not what you think." Max shouted as Zoe began walking down the corridor, before breaking into a run as she tried to stop the tears from falling. It now no longer seemed scary to admit that she loved him. The scary part now lay in the fact that he had full control of her heart, something that no one had been given the privilege of before, only Max didn't know that he had had it.

No longer did she care about the patients that she had been looking after, they all seemed irrelevant now, she just ran until she found the toilets by another ward, where it was unlikely that anyone she would know would recognise her. Once looked in a small cubicle, the tears allowed themselves to flow freely, staining her cheeks with the make-up that had been flawlessly applied only hours before. She'd spent years building a protective wall around herself, and perhaps more importantly her heart, and all it had taken was a few months with Max to break them all down, a couple of months in Africa and it had managed to rebuild itself. She couldn't blame Max for moving on, after all she'd been expertly pushing him away and reiterating the nature of the relationship could only extend to friends.

Wiping her eyes, she left the toilets 20 minutes later, wiping the remnants of the make-up that she had cried to majority of off and reapplying a new mask to hide her emotions. Her shift seemed to end pretty quickly, her muddling her way through, something that should not be done in the medical profession but with the newly broken heart that she was mending, she didn't care. Zoe's decision to go to the pub was not her best, after all she'd known that there was a reasonably high chance that she'd bump into Max and what she thought was his new girlfriend, the need for alcohol to help her forget her hellish day trumped it.

"Zoe?" Came a voice that gave her butterflies inside and now brought tears to her eyes, she turned her head slightly to ascertain that it was in fact Max before turning back to the large glass of wine that had been placed in front of her. "Was earlier…?" He asked, unsure himself of what to say, despite his usual façade of cockiness with Zoe he was completely different.

"No. Just leave it Max." Zoe replied curtly, before noticing the lack of any nurse with him.

"No Zo, come with me." He told her sternly, the authority in his voice exciting her and scaring her in equal measures, leaving the glass of wine that she'd just ordered and paid for, she stood up and followed Max. Max led her back towards the entrance of Holby ED and straight through to his cupboard, with the arrival of an RTC, no one had acknowledged their entrance in order to question it.

"What are we doing here?" Zoe asked anxiously.

"I came here, only you can tell me why you came."

"You told me to come." Zoe pointed out.

"You didn't have to though, there must have been a reason." He began, finally deciding that he was right as a slight blush coloured Zoe's cheeks. "That nurse was in here because she'd been at the pub after you'd told me that you just wanted to be friends again, I got drunk and ended up telling her everything. She came in to check how I was doing Zoe, nothing more."

"Really?" Zoe asked, the nervousness as evident as day in her voice.

"Really." Max repeated, slight taken aback by the fact that she showed no sign of anger at him revealing their secret.

"That makes this all a bit easier then, I don't really know how to say this though Max so listen carefully. I don't want to just be friends with you, I don't know how you managed it but I need to be with you. I don't know how or why but I love you Max Walker."

"And I love you Zoe Hanna and I do know why, you're the most stunning intelligent woman I've ever laid eyes on. You are practically flawless in every single way and that is why I could never be with a nurse who frankly has nothing on a level even near you." He spoke, closing in on her before finally no more words were needed and after months apart, their lips finally reconnected, the spark passing between them confirming their declarations to each other and more. However unlikely a couple they were and however much that on paper it didn't seem like it would work, it did. For some unknown reason, they were meant to be and that's how the game playing between Zoe and Max ended and the rest of their lives together started.


End file.
